The Taliban’s supreme commander in Afghanistan, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, was captured in Pakistan earlier this year. He was the highest ranking Taliban commander ever arrested. But instead of his extradition to Afghanistan or hand-over to the U.S., he was kept in a cozy house in Islamabad.

Yes, the man second in command only to Mullah Omar, the one-eyed leader of the Taliban, has reportedly been released and no one knows where he went. (The smart bet is he rejoined his buddies in the fight against NATO and the Afghan government.)

Apparently, his release has the backing of the Obama administration, the reason being the ongoing “talks” between the Taliban and the Afghan government. This is not the first time the Afghan government has claimed it has been holding talks with the Taliban. For years, President Hamid Karzai’s government has been attempting to negotiate with the Taliban. But every single time, a few headlines are made out of how he’s reaching out to them and how they’re talking back, then, nothing.

It’s easy to lose count of the number of times the Taliban have held talks with the Afghan government and at the same time unleashed terror all over the country. But these talks, according Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, are just preliminary and cannot even be considered “negotiations,” the Associated Press reports.

Furthermore, the current talks are being touted as attacks in Afghanistan continue. During the parliamentary elections of last month, there were hundreds of Taliban attacks. Taliban allies have been burning Coalition supply trucks across the border in Pakistan the past few days as the border remains sealed and fuel trucks are backed up for miles. NATO soldiers are being killed and injured on a weekly basis in the bloodiest year of the war. To top it off, there is no formal indication from the Taliban that they are in any kind of negotiations. And here we are releasing their top commander so that his captivity won’t disrupt the “talks.”

These “talks” apparently are so far only confined to the imagination of the Afghan government and the trust that Gen. Petraeus has in their word. The Associated Press boldly asserts in a piece published on Saturday that,

In Afghanistan, Taliban leaders have told followers that there are no official peace talks with the U.S.-backed Afghan government, an apparent move to persuade their rank- and-file to stay in the fight.

Now if the Taliban were on the losing side of the fight, it would be understandable. But they’re not. They’ve taken over most of the countryside in the south and the east after losing all of the country in 2001. They’ve stepped up their attacks on NATO and its allies. The Afghan government has lost control over huge swaths of the country and is increasingly viewed as weak and on the brink of collapse. NATO has been forced to add more troops to the country to win back areas it has lost, or has won back and lost again. All signs show that the Taliban are winning.

35 Comments, 15 Threads

1.
Throbbin Yobbin

Perhaps this man can provide witness to the genocide of his fellow Muslims in the American Auschwitz (Gitmo). While Obama has demonstrated some compassion for the victims of the Bush Holocuast of Muslims, he has failed to expose its true horror to the world and hence has done nothing to de-Bushify the country. In a sane world, Mullah Abdul Ghani Barada would be testifying at the Hague in a trial of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Coulter and the rest of the Rethuglican genocidal warlords and propagandists. However, maybe he can now tell the truth on a more objective media source like Al-Jezeera.

Go play to playing with your Yobbin which is why it’s Throbbin. Be glad that I am not President, I’d have your sorry heiny arrested for treason, specifically aiding and abetting our enemies in time of war.

This person really believes that challenging the corporate agenda is treason. Unless you are an idle billionaire, you’re interests are the same as the enemies of the American corparchy. Muslims and American workers share a common struggle against the forces of global corporate oppression.

Besides, my criticism of the current adminstration is pretty limited. The final solution for Muslims seems to be off the agenda.

Even his Democratic opponents in the election pointed out Obama was naive in the world affairs (read stupid). Now we have people dying in a war he is losing through incompetence by setting deadlines for withdrawal and now this. Well 53% you wanted a sexy young President no experience required rather than some old guy. Pity his legacy will be death and plenty of it.

This shows you what side the Pakistanis are on. If they had a high-ranking Taliban leader like Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and didn’t hand him over to the United States for interrogation, Pakistan isn’t much of an ally. Well, I guess they never really were. Anyway, kind of shows you what side the ISI (the Pakistani intelligence service) is on.

I wouldn’t trust this guy to give you the right time of day, let alone “negotiate” a settlement to the war. This makes the Pakistanis, and the CIA, look foolish. I wonder what General David Petraeus had to say about this?

I have to wonder why Petraeus even took the job. It’s a losing propostion with this President in charge.
And the good General has not yet loosened the rules of engagement, allowing the troops to fight back effectively.
If we are not going to fight this war to win, then let’s just bring the troops home. Why sacrifice them for nothing.
When the Taliban control Afghanistan again (as they will under our current policy), and our homeland is subject to another attack planned and executed from there, we can go back in under a President who has some cajones.
When you are facing a ruthless enemy, you have to be ruthless also. Apparently they didn’t teach that to Obama at Harvard.

Gen. Petraeus should’ve never taken the job. Gen. McChrystal was totally right about Obama and the Afghan government. Pity he wasn’t kept. That’s even after Robert Gates asked for him to be kept after that Rolling Stone article.

“The Taliban’s supreme commander in Afghanistan, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, was captured in Pakistan earlier this year. He was the highest ranking Taliban commander ever arrested. But instead of his extradition to Afghanistan or hand-over to the U.S., he was kept in a cozy house in Islamabad.

Here is another example of the treachery of the Pakistanis, and the incoherence and incompetence of the Obama administration.
Mr. Baradar will go back to his number one job of killing American soldiers.

First and foremost, I have to say, ‘Buck oFama’. He ties our troops hands behind their backs with nonsensical rules of engagement(can’t return fire if enemy fires and drops weapon or is within 500 yards of ‘unarmed’ collaborators posing as civilians) while promoting talks with the Taliban and letting high level prisoners of war go free. Whose side is this son of a bitch on anyway? THIS IS NOT WAR THIS IS SUICIDE. You can be d@mn sure that Russia and China are watching closely as they position themselves for military and energy dominance around the world, all the way up to our back yard, by making friends with our enemies. The damage this scumbag has done and continues to do will possibly take decades to reverse – if ever!!

The release of that terrorist wasn’t just Omama’s doing. It was Eric Holder’s doing, also. Suffice to say, Eric Holder is the most irresponsible and the most incompetent Attorney General that this country has ever had. That damned fool doesn’t have any common sense or any morals, absoutely none whatsoever. Only that extremely irresponsible lightweight, Obama, would have appointed that other extremely irresponsible lightweight, Holder, as Attorney General. Together, they are making alliances with our country’s worst enemies. THAT is what affirmative action has done for this country. Thanks 52%ers, you effing a-holes.

I agree with Josh. Another senior Taliban leader, Mullah Zakir, was released from Guantanamo Bay upon request from Karzai, a couple years ago. He rejoined his fellow Taliban soon after, and is now leading and overseeing all Taliban operations in the south.
Policy of appeasing Pakistan and the Taliban with such sweeteners has failed. One has strategic depth in mind; the latter is ideologically tied to Al-Qaeda. The two are inseparable from their obsessions. Unless you send shivers in the spine of Pakistan and make it to abandon Taliban tool, the danger is that sooner or later the West will be forced to fight Al-Qaeda in its borders.